From Istanbul, Orders to Kill (1965) User Reviews

This extreme low budget euro-spy is........

[jeroenalmar · 4/10 · 6 January 2018]

Well how to start, ........ this movies resembles some kind of summer high school project. Is appears to be shot with a single camera. "Action" scenes are usually shot from a tower and seems to be shot on normal streets. In a certain kidnapping scene on a street in Istanbul body language from bystanders seem genuinely puzzled. Probably the crew did not have money to get the permits or something like that.

Characters come and go without any character development. The main character switched clothes from a t shirt to a suit every few scenes. There is a doppelganger theme here and in the end they both appear but it is unclear who is who. The two female leads are confusingly look alike even they are different people.

The "grand finally" the cameraman apparently climbed in a tree to shoot his scene with his handheld camera. The director made one more even more obscure movie that has hardly any info on IMDB.

This movie is as low budget as it gets. The good thing is that is all shot on actual streets (Rome and Istanbul) and real hotel rooms.

I was kind of pulled by the incredible low key of it all. With the travelogue of how Istanbul was in the 1960's as its best point. But after 2 viewings I still had no idea what was going on.

This movie is a real headscratcher , but if it was indeed some summer school project I am impressed. If this was a serious attempt on making a studio financed movie it is the biggest joke in movie history.

Will I watch it again? Yes I will, I am intrigues by this completely offbeat ineptly made travelogue. See it for yourself.

Uneven spy flick

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 20 January 2009]

As mid-1960's Euro-spy thrillers go, "From Istanbul With Orders To Kill" had the potential to be better than most (good fight scenes, extensive on-location filming, competent cast) but it suffers from a few too many dull sections. Undeniably the worst comes in the middle, when the hero goes to Istanbul for the first time, and for the next 20 minutes or so we get to see him simply walking around, having lunch, meeting various contacts, etc. This part is so dull it almost kills the movie. Another problem is that the two female leads, Geraldine Pearsall and Lucretia Love, although both VERY beautiful, look and are styled too much like each other, to the point where it's sometimes very hard to tell them apart. Of course one of them is a redhead and the other is a blonde, but on the old VHS transfer of the movie I watched, the color wasn't exactly crystal clear, if you know what I mean. Overall, the movie is an uneven ride to a very downbeat ending. (**)

solid 60's euro-spy film with great jazz score

[django-1 · 19 December 2001]

This review is of the SWV video of an American International TV print, in color, of this obscure 1965 Italian film. A starving writer is offered $20,000 by an old friend in the intelligence service to pose as "Felix," an international smuggler, because the writer looks exactly like this Felix. There's lots of action, beautiful locations in Italy and (presumably) Istanbul, double-crosses galore, fistfights and chases, etc. Star "Christopher Logan" is obviously a European, who looks somewhat familiar, but I can't place him--he reminds me vaguely of a euro version of the young Christopher Walken or Sean Penn. As someone who has watched countless 60's European spy/crime films, I'd definitely consider this one above average. In addition, there is a superb modern jazz score throughout--like an unknown 1965 Blue Note quintet session. For fans of the genre, this film is well worth getting!!

They Should Have Called It "From Istanbul With Orders To Bore"

[zardoz-13 · 3/10 · 17 June 2007]

"From Istanbul, Orders To Kill" opens eventfully with a natty gunmen shooting and killing a man and then a woman before the story shifts into expository mode. A down-on-his-heels journalist hiding out from--as he reveals--"an army of creditors" accepts a dangerous assignment from an old friend Williams, a CIA agent, who wants him to impersonate an international criminal known only as Felix. According to the CIA agent, this Felix is "a big fish" who "belongs to a widespread organization" that operates in the Middle East and North Africa and deals in gunrunning and drug traffic. The CIA agent describes the organization as " a large gang run very well well and ruthless . . ." Although the agency have been on the trail of these miscreants for a long time, they have had no luck identifying the bosses, but they have learned that the higher-ups are located in New York City. Meanwhile, Felix operates out of Rome, Italy, and Williams recruits John (Christopher Logan) because he believes that the latter has "guts and doesn't mind taking a risk." Williams offers John the sum of $25-thousand and John winds up earning every penny in his gangland masquerade. The CIA abducts Felix, and John steps into his well-tailored shoes and finds himself tangled up in several hard knuckled fights and duplicitious dames. At one point, he smuggles narcotics out of Istanbul in the spare tire of his car, a place that he is assured by a woman that the authorities would never search because he is an American tourist. At the same time, Felix's own mob don't completely trust him and they have somebody shadowing him at every turn.

This lackluster travelogue thriller degenerates quickly into an exercise in loquacity with people talking constantly with other people in exotic locales between the occasional fightfight or shoot-out. None of the characters is remotely memorable and they boast no outstanding characteristics aside from dressing themselves as if they were models. In other words, they are flat and one-dimensional. There is no quotable dialogue. The lead actor lacks any trace of charisma and the beautiful babes blend with the background. Clocking in at monotonous 82 minutes with an out-of-place but entertaining jazz score from Alessandro Brugnolini, "From Istanbul, Orders To Kill" is as forgettable as they come despite its scene settings and Hugh Hamilton's eye-catching photography. The dubbing is up to snuff and the Foley work (footsteps, gunshots, and fists smacking flesh) is top-notch. They should have called it "From Istanbul With Orders to Bore."

SO BAD IT IS GOOD...AT LEAST ENJOYABLE

[larryanderson · 3/10 · 28 November 2021]

I ran across this title on Y/T and decided to kill some time. All the other reviews said it was terrible and they were right except I actually enjoyed it. At least it was an entertaining Euro-Spy and I do like these movies.

However the story is too confusing and the camera work is atrocious but the long boring parts seem to work, at least on a certain level.

What confused me is the use of so many attractive women that all look somewhat alike.

Lucy gets shot in the opening scene. Olga is the drug addict. Lisa lays by the pool and the French girl lures our hero to the junk yard.

All of which I have no idea as to their names.

I did recognize Janine Reynard laying by the pool and she even answers to Janine.

There is a lovely Oriental girl called the Queen who tells the hero "she is alone tonight and would like his company". Does anyone recognize her?

Part of it was filmed in Istanbul as they show the Galata bridge and St. Sophia Mosque.

This is a genuine Euro-Spy and thus has a place in the genre but it is bad and boring. However watch it as it is worth your time.

a small film whose charms are still undiscovered

[vjetorix · 7/10 · 10 March 2003]

Occasionally a low budget film achieves a sort of quaint lyricism, a quality arrived at not by intention but by necessity. You may count From Istanbul, Orders to Kill among those few films. Even though we are comfortable recognizing the thriller film conventions, there is an esoteric element that eludes and amuses us.

Christopher Logan (presumably a pseudonym for an Italian actor whose real name is unknown to us) is offered twenty grand by CIA agent Williams to impersonate a certain Felix, who smuggles drugs for an international crime syndicate. The plot becomes convoluted concerning who is betraying who but the story is not the primary reason for watching. We are unfamiliar with most of the actors in this somewhat obscure offering but it certainly appears to be genre film stalwart Janine Reynaud who gets killed in the opening scene.

Economics comes into play as there are lots of (actually interesting) travelogue shots of Logan walking around the real Istanbul, killing time to the jazzy beats on the soundtrack. Speaking of which, the score is a set of terrific combo jazz pieces by an unknown composer. It could easily stand on its own and is another one of the elements that lift this film above its lowly brethren.